Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – To improve Malaysia’s competitiveness, the country must double down on efforts to improve productivity, the essence of competitiveness, said scholar John Antony Xavier.
The 2024 World Competitiveness Report (WCR) by the International Institute of Management Development, a Swiss business school, placed Malaysia as the 34th most competitive nation, down seven places from the last year's edition. It was in 27th position last year.
Meanwhile, Singapore has ranked as the world’s most competitive economy, surpassing Switzerland in second place, and Denmark in the third spot.
In his writing published on nst.com.my on June 25, Xavier pointed out five strategies for Malaysia to climb the ranks of competitiveness, which are sound macro-economic policies with better management of budget deficit and public debt, enhancing productivity of firms, aggressively developing a business-friendly ecosystem to attract foreign direct investments (FDI), implementing structural reforms to taxation, subsidies and labour market and maintaining political stability.
Innovation buttresses productivity improvement and competitiveness, he added./.
